John Bowlby's Case Study

The ability to form and maintain relationships is an essential part of healthy emotional and physical development. John Bowlby, the first attachment therapist, believed the early bonds a child forms with his caregivers will have a great impact on the relationships he has as an adult. To understand what attachment is, we first need to understand bonding. Bonding is the process of forming an attachment, it creates a connection between two people. In this case, we are referring to the connection or bond between the infant and its primary care giver, most likely the mother. If the bond is nurturing, comforting and pleasurable between caregiver and child, the child will become securely attached, otherwise the child will have an insecure attachment.
If the attachment was secure there is a greater chance the child will be able to build new attachments. If the attachment was insecure the child may have trouble creating an attachment to his new family. Often, children that have been institutionalized or in foster care require greater support and patience when forming new relationships because they have emotionally shut down. Secure attachments happen with consistent and appropriately responding caregivers. Children with secure attachments have an easier time expressing their wants and needs, making it easier for the parent to be consistent in their response. Children that have insecure attachment may not call out when they need assistance or are frightened. They may not tell the parent if they are hungry or sick, making it difficult for the parent to respond in a consistent manner. For children with impaired attachment there is little known about the ability to repair the early experiences later in life. Therapist have suggested that improvement can take place, but this is a long and frustrating process for all involved. An experienced therapist can give guidance in parenting techniques that may help the bonding process such as, maintain a scheduled routine, comfort the child after an injury or
RAD may develop if the child's basic needs for comfort, affection and nurturing aren't met appropriately. Children with extreme cases of RAD can be very violent, they may lie, steal, have no impulse control, become destructive to self, others, or material things. Children with RAD lack eye contact on the parent’s terms, but display is appropriately when lying or angry. They most likely have poor peer relationship, have preoccupations with fire, blood, and gore, and are controlling and manipulative among a host of other characteristics. As an parent, parenting a child with RAD it is important to